Sunday, September 1, 2019

Roads Away

"There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart." — Celia Thaxter

    It had to have been a movie prop.  Or something from a commercial shoot.

    Possibly, it was all a dream.  A brief one.

    It happened on this, the first day of September, under a gray early afternoon sky as we drove along a winding, tree-lined street tucked beside a busy suburb.  Passing in the opposite direction was the summer.  It was summer and it was driving away, headed south.  

    And we're not foolin'.

    It was a vintage Volkswagen Beetle.  Light blue with a surfboard and a metal Coca-Cola cooler strapped to the roof. 

    This wasn't just another car on the road.  This was the summer of yesterday, perfectly preserved, speeding - south of course - taking the sun and a youthful song with it. 

    Whoever was driving that car must be careful where they park it.  They cannot leave the surfboard and the cooler on top.  They cannot park near the other cars.  They cannot let the leaves and the snow even get a hint that the summermobile is anywhere close because when fall and winter grab hold they don't let go.

    Summer was built in Germany a long time ago and rides the waves and drinks a Coke and it goes south as you're going north and it doesn't give you time to look in the rearview mirror. 

    You have to remember it just as it was.  And you have to know that what you saw was real.  --TK